Hollywood star Meryl Streep has expressed her "shock" at Emma Thompson's omission from the Oscar shortlist.

Cate Blanchett, Sandra Bullock, Dame Judi Dench, Amy Adams and Streep have been nominated for leading actress this year.

British actress Thompson, 54, did not make the grade despite being heavily tipped for inclusion for her role in the Mary Poppins film Saving Mr Banks.

Streep, 64, who has been nominated for her 18th Academy Award for her performance in August: Osage County, has revealed that she emailed Thompson to express her dismay over the "injustice".

The Iron Lady star told The Ellen DeGeneres Show: "I was really shocked. I wrote her a long, heartfelt email about how bad I felt. She wrote back and just said, 'Good'."

She told the US chat show host: "There were a lot of surprises and injustices."

Streep said that she was "dead asleep" when the nominations were read out because she did not think that she "had a chance" of being nominated.

"I'm so old news...", she said. "There were so many performances this year that were great..."

Thompson was nominated for a Golden Globe and is in the running for a Bafta for her role as Mary Poppins' creator PL Travers, opposite Tom Hanks, who also failed to make the Oscar shortlist.

Streep's comments came after she criticised Walt Disney at an event where she had been invited to honour Thompson for her role in the film.

The Oscar-winning star called Disney, played by Hanks in the movie, a "gender bigot" who supported an anti-semitic industry lobbying group.

Disney's grandniece Abigail Disney, agreed with Streep's comments, writing on Facebook: "Anti-Semite? Check. Misogynist? OF COURSE!! Racist? C'mon he made a film (The Jungle Book) about how you should stay 'with your own kind' at the height of the fight over segregation!"

She said that Saving Mr Banks was "a brazen attempt by the company (Disney) to make a saint out of the man".